Yowah population grows for gem of a festival

The population of a tiny south-west Queensland town will swell later today, with hundreds of visitors arriving for a celebration of opals.

Yowah, west of Cunnamulla, is holding its opal festival, with gem buyers expected from overseas and across the country.

Spokesman Eddie McGuire says the town's gem fields date back 130 years and are still producing boulder opal.

"The Yowah opal field is the oldest in Australia - 1884 it was a registered mining lease," he said.

"The first mining lease in Queensland was registered in Charleville in 1884 but the opal mining is still active, it's not as active as it has been, and the area is relatively small in opal mining terms, but it [the opal] is boulder, it is rare and it is beautiful."

He says the accommodation is booked out ahead of the event.

"Yowah probably has a population of 100, 110 people," he said.

"People just open the doors up to accommodate extras.

"The place is filling up quite quickly though, so we are looking for a crowd of perhaps 400 or 500 people.

"We've got people coming from Germany, and they time it because after the Yowah show there is the Lightning Ridge show, the Gold Coast then also has a big gem show as well, so it is like a circuit they can follow."